The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1887-02-11
Natutinal SoliIaquies of q Young Man
snLlLooEY THE FIRST.

i soLILoQUY THE FIRST
Iieigho! SO this is London, and
smokey, foggy, dismal metropolis it is,
to say the least OF it.
Reminds me of young Simpkins, of
our class, who undertook to write az
apostrophe to the ocean--a la Byron
ard completed one line: "Oh, thou pro.
digious dampness!" simpkins stuck
there al 4 couldn't get any farther; but
there is 10 such limit to London damp
ness.
By the great ponds Of Michigan, the
air here seems TO hold water in solu-
ton! One runs d risk OF being drowned
in -breatliingl
suppose this is what Mr. Guppy
called London particular" but with
all due respect. / don't think London is
particular, or she wouldn't have such
nm atmosphere.
Fine showing, this, for an April
morning! Ho, hum I really must get
up and comm ence my pilgrimage.
can't understand why Ishould have
started on this European tour, and con-
demned myself to wandering about
looking at things / don't want to see,
climbing mountains ] don't want to
climb, rummaging around through
nasty streets where L don't want to
rummage,s and inhaipg oders that
decidedly object to. What is the use
now Of my doing" London, and sub
jecting myself to fatigue, odors, and
'ackney coaches, when j accomplish it
all SO much moro pleasantly with one
Of Dickens novels at home in ham
mock, or drifting down the Chesapeake? !?
] can't understand why l should want
to see the Tower because the princes
weremnrdered there, nor the Avon be.
cause Shakespeare was born there, nor
hundred and one other places because
something was done or wasn't done
there! If faman tells me that his fa-
ther was hanged, / am quite satisfied TO
believe him without rushing off inn
mediately to see the place md bring
ing away piece of the gallows or
shred OF the rope. at
Thank heaven, when I'm through
with London my occupations gone, and
cnn go home in peace. Constantine
pie, Venice, Rome, Switzerland, Pnris
I've done them all, and pretty thor
oughly, hope, though my people at
home will be, ,5ure to think of some con-
founded place that ought to have seen
but didn't see. Something that have
omitted which they have been dying to
see for goodness knows how long.
Think I'd better c5ach up on the
guide book, and-that reminds me
gave mine to the pretty girl whom I
rescued in Venice from the gondoliers
those fellows are as bad as London
'ackney- who was so
charmingly grateful. Said she hoped
we might meet again, and she was ever
and ever SO much obliged to me, and it
was so nice to meet II countryman, for
she was American. l would have
known that if she had stopped alter
''nice" "--and a great deal more to the
same effect, oil in tliesweetest voice and
with tho cordial, contiling way which
belongs alone to our girls, Bless 'eml
Shook hands with me, smiled more in
her soft gray eyes than with her lips,
and left me standing there with my hat
of, q spectacle for those rascally boat
mcni r. %
Made memorandum on blank leaf
of my gtide-book to this effect:
Prettiest picture in Venice. Study
in gray. Gray eyes, grey robe, name
Gray. Worth fortune, but by the
right person to be had for the asking.
IN. B.-Wou]d that dared to ask.
Then I gave the nearest gondolier
twenty franc piece to cyertake her and
retrieve to Mademoiselle the book she
did neglect. And that's all. sa
By Joye, / must get up!